The document summarizes a project conducted by the Centre for Women's Development and Research (CWDR) to promote sexual and reproductive health rights for adolescent girls in Kannagi Nagar, Chennai. CWDR conducted baseline surveys with questionnaires for young married women and adolescent girls to collect data on issues like child marriage and understanding of sexual health. The surveys found that 42% of 500 young married women surveyed had married before the age of 18. CWDR then categorized the adolescent girls to plan tailored programs addressing the needs of out-of-school girls, in-school girls, and child brides. The project aims to create awareness of sexual and reproductive health and rights to reduce rates of teenage pregnancy and child marriage in the area.

1. Sexual & Reproductive Health Rights
Awareness Programme for Adolescent Girls of
Kannagi Nagar (CWDR)
By
Srividya K
Reg.No.33017007

2. Centre for Women’s Development and
Research
• Centre for women’s Development and Research (CWDR) is an
NGO which promotes women’s rights, leadership and
empowerment through issue based campaigns and community
level activities
• CWDR was initiated out of the belief that women managed
organizations are best suited to address the gender specific
problems of women
• CWDR has been supporting women and young girls in slums
of Chennai through the campaigns, Manushi, Maithri,
Snehidhi, and Nanban, to create awareness among adolescent
boys in slum.

3. • I was involved in the “Sexual and Reproductive Health
Rights” campaign of CWDR, at Kannagi Nagar, a resettlement
colony at “Okkiam Thoraipakkkam”, which records the
highest number of teenage pregnancies and child marriages in
Tamil Nadu
• According to census data of 2011, Chennai alone has 5480
married girls under the age of 15 followed by Coimbatore with
3025 girls under the age of 15
• The data says there were 82.52 lakh girls under the age of 15
at the time of documenting and 62,500 of them were married.
Centre for Women’s Development and
Research – SRHR Project

4. • We conducted a baseline survey to collect quantitative data to
ascertain the facts on ground
• We prepared 2 questionnaires one targeting young married
women in the age group of 15 – 30, to find out the number of
cases of child marriages
• Another targeting adolescent girls in the age group of 12 – 19,
to measure their level of understanding about sex,
reproduction, menstrual hygiene and legal awareness
Centre for Women’s Development and
Research – SRHR Project

5. Significance of the Survey Conducted by
CWDR
• The survey conducted by CWDR is crucial for the SRHR
project it has under taken, as it gives a database of the target
audience, which can be used to design programmes addressing
specific issues. To target 1000 adolescent girls and their
mothers and create awareness about SRHR, we need to have
the numbers in place to measure the outcomes
• The previous surveys were not women centric, but CWDR’s
survey targets only women, specifically adolescent girls. This
will help in analysing issues like child marriage and teenage
pregnancy in broader terms.

6. Outcomes
• With a database of adolescent girls, we have categorised the
girls into 3,
– Adolescent Dropouts
– Adolescent School Going
– Adolescent Married (Child Brides)
• We have planned different programmes for each group at area
level and school level, as the needs of the groups are different
and they cannot be homogenised
• Out of the 500 young married women surveyed 210 had
married before 18, which is 42%

7. Learning
• Feminization of Poverty at Kannagi Nagar
– Increased single mother households
– Inadequate government policies
– Lack of Education
– Lack of Access to Healthcare
• India has many schemes which were primarily designed for the
benefit of women and children, but when it comes to
implementation, we are still at ground zero
• Though we have many laws criminalising child marriage, child
abuse, rape of minor people largely remain unaware of those laws

8. Learning
• Issues of Children at kannagi Nagar – Drug Addiction,
Teenage pregnancy, Malnutrition, Child Marriage, Child
Labour, School Drop outs, Child Abuse and Unsafe
environment
• If the girls are stopped from dropping out of school, the
number of teenage pregnancies can be reduced
• If the boys are rehabilitated from drug addiction, crime rate
will reduce

9. Thank You !!!!